Across Time & Space, I will find you
by Arelya-Andaria
Summary: Star-crossed Lovers AU - Erik & Christine finding - and losing - each other, over centuries. Written for LittleLongHairedOutlaw's Poto AU contest. With Multiple Pairs. One-shot.


_*-* Immortals across time, they find themselves again and again._

It begins at the dawn of time, when they are both from different tribes. Not at war with each other, but keeping a safe distance.

He is rejected by his own, after a hunting accident leaves him deeply scarred. He saves the life of several others, but is shunned for it. No one would mate with him.

Wanders the wild alone, learning to survive, and finding relief in music. That's when she hears it for the first time. His music, the twin to hers, the echo of it in her heart.

They spend a summer together, but death finds him first, and they make a promise to each other: they will always find one another.

She mates with a gentle, adventurous soul. He's not the twin to her soul, but he loves her, and she learns to love him too.

When she's reborn, hundreds of years later, the sun shines heavily on her brown skin, the high-born daughter of a great scribe. Set to marry one of her friends. But one day, as she leaves her home of shadowed patios and delightful fountains, she hears him. He wears a beautiful, golden mask, and his fingers on the harp are agile and fascinating. She stays to listen to him when his eyes fall on hers, golden like the gods'.

Later that night, she finds him, and they run together to the river, joining their voices as their souls beat against one another.

Early that morning, as the dawn finds them sprawled on the grass, an adder finds her, and she's dead by midday.

Broken by grief, he throws himself in the Nile.

By their third incarnation, in the beautiful cities of Greece, they both know they are not destined to be with each other. But how can they resist true love's call?

This time, they try to be cautious. She's a priestess to the god Apollo, blessed by him with a fabulous voice. She's dancing and singing during the yearly festivities, barely 16, when he sees her. A retired, scarred warrior, become poet, he's already had a young lover, a brown skinned man from the other side of the sea, with a name as sweet as honey, and he, too, makes beautiful, exotic music. But his heart knows his mate, and when their eyes meet, so do their souls.

They know the penalty for their love, but are ready to pay it nonetheless.

They're both found poisoned, on the last day of the festival, entwined in each other's arms.

It is a new continent, and a different culture. Her hair is black and soft as silk, and his eyes are wonderfully deep, black as the night sky. He was born for honor and duty, keeping his love for music for the time he is home, and not away fighting for his Emperor.

She is raised a proud daughter, her gaze unblinking, even as she gracefully pours her new husband tea. She is happy she shares him with a friend. Older than her, she teaches her young protégée all that she has to know in the ways of love, and perhaps her touch is not what girlfriends are supposed to share.

She doesn't care.

They are not supposed to meet. And she knows, when her husband brings his new friend home, saying he has saved his life at the expense of his own beauty, that it's the start of the end.

She makes him music, to show him her appreciation, as they meet under the cherry trees, the wind a gentle sound tangling her careful coiffure, as she dances and sings. Once again, their souls meet, and entwine.

Once again, their music binds them.

And it defeats them in the same blink.

A katana through the heart, when he's found with his friend's wife, and given the choice of death or dishonor.

She cries herself to death, hidden in the ancient forest, his blood is all over her kimono.

Early medieval times. A beautiful fair, and a young girl learning the violin, from her papa's hands. Running through the forest with her two friends, a gentle boy with golden hair and a dazzling smile, who she kisses on a dare, and a witty, fierce dark-haired dancer, who loves to climb up the trees as the tiniest, darkest human chipmunk.

She meets him then, an old man who reads her stories in the dark tavern. When she sings softly to thank him, his eyes close, and he thanks her deeply. He feels what she cannot, and though she's gone the following morning, to play somewhere else, he knows his heart is gone with her. For the first time, she hasn't recognized him.

When she goes back to the same village, ten years later, she goes to the tavern, feeling her heart called out by another.

But then her feet lead her somewhere else, by the small town's heavy church, and the small graveyard next to it.

There he lies, headstone simple and white against the green earth, and she cries out for him. She plays the violin, to appease her heart, and his own.

She never returns afterwards.

It is a time of changes and discoveries. Disguised as a boy, she sets out to the new world. She has nothing and no one left waiting for her in the old one.

The voyage is long, and the waters treacherous. Not long after they've finally spotted land, the ship hits the deep rock hiding the entrance of a safe harbor. She can swim, sets out for the shore, and there she finds him. He saves her from drowning, and she recoils from him at first, believing him a monster from her homeland stories, his face hideous and deeply scarred.

But he sings for her, tends to her, and her heart recognizes him at last.

Together at last, nothing to separate them.

Or so they believe.

Later that month, as she's fully recovered from her near-death, a settler's party finds them, and frightened by his sight, fires at him. He bleeds out in her arms, and she's taken away from the monster.

She runs away, tears in her eyes, and finds comfort in a Native tribe. Understanding is hard, but with perseverance, she settles down with them, those who love her and soothe her aching heart. The chief's youngest daughter is her dearest friend, her name the sound of the wind in the trees, the color of the river flowing next to the village, and there she finds peace, heart beating to the sound of the drums.

A party, for the late Duke's only son's birthday. A ball, where the young ladies are throwing themselves at him. It is a masquerade, after all, and the plagued face that made his own father despise him is at last hidden away.

Here, he talks and charms, knowing he is to find a bride. If not out of spite, he must still have an heir.

He plays the violin and the piano and composes and he's an architect, a scientist, ladies. Oh, he sings too? What a worldly young man… How is it he never found a bride, they whisper around him.

She's not supposed to be here. She's only been invited by her dear aunt, who took pity on her and dressed her up for the occasion, and threw her to the pit of snakes. She hears their whispers too, how a country girl should appear here, how obvious she is, from her rough hands, and her tanned skin. Still, when she sings, they listen, and so does he.

He feels her arrive, knows her heart as he knows his own.

But their time, as usual, is short.

Beneath the moonless sky, as they walk through the gardens, drunk on their love and watching the fireworks over the fountains, her ridiculous gown a giant thing keeping him at an arm's length from her, they sing out their hearts.

At peace, if only for a moment. The mask falls out before they kiss, and her cries of surprise bring the whole of the castle to them.

Ashamed of her reaction, she leaves, and hides herself in a convent. He endlessly looks for her, but never succeeds.

End of the 19th century.

He's a Music ghost hiding away in an Opera house, and she's a delicate, broken young soprano dreaming of better times and red scarfs and Angels.

They meet on a lonely night, and he teaches her how to wield her voice, sending her out on a journey to Prima Donna.

She gives him her soul, and finds her old lover, childhood sweetheart, returned from his travels overseas.

She does not recognize him, either, this time, until it is too late. Chaos has been brought to their doors, from grief and too much passion.

Only at the end does she recognize what her heart and soul were telling her, and she gives him back his golden ring, as he lies there, dying.

Fleeing with her friend has never been so hard.

By luck, they escape the great wars, and are born at the turn of the century.

They are both weary, finding love only to lose it painfully, and refuse to acknowledge what is between them, as they meet in a cold beach, in December. The waves are crashing on the shore, seagulls crying over their heads.

She's sitting on the damp sand, wind tangling her hair, grey light blinding her, and she feels him.

Fear and shame rushes through her veins, as the memories of a hundred different lives come back to her.

How she loved him, and always lost him.

He's there by sheer luck, turned away by an editor too frightful to publish his music. He thought it would be better to hide away on a deserted beach than drunk at home.

Mask on, and scarf around his head, a nobody in Northern France.

Their eyes meet, for the first time. For the latest time.

He can feel her music, in his soul.

She can feel his melody reaching out to her.

They sing, and are home.

For the first and latest time, they embrace.

Now the spell is broken.

They've spent several lifetimes apart, finding love with others, losing love, losing hope, but this time, they'll share one love.

This lifetime is theirs, and theirs alone.


End file.
